Improvement in treating wood for the manufacture of paper-pulp



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

VINCENT E. KEEGAN, OF BOSTON, (SOUTHERN DISTRIOT,) MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN TREATING WOOD FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER-PULP.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 88,879, dated April 13, 1869.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VINGENT E. KEEGAN, M. D., of Boston, (southern district,) Suffolk county, State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and Improved Process for Reducing Wood and Woody Fibers and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof.

The nature of my invention consists in sub jectin g wood and woody fibers to the oxidizing action of hypochlorite of lime, in the manner particularly as described in the following statement. 7

To enable others skilled in the art to use my invention, I will proceed to describe the process.

I first reduce the wood to thin narrow rough shreds with very corrugated surfaces. 1 then digest these shreds in a caustic cold solution of chloride of lime of the highest gravity, in shallow troughs lined with lead about ten inches deep. I use about one pound of chlorideof-lime powder to two gallons of water, and allow three gallons of this liquor to a pound of wood-shreds, and in twelve or fifteen hours, if the chloride liquor is all decomposed and the shreds separate into perfect fibers, soft and elastic, this part of the process is completed. elf not, then the liquor must be drawn off and a fresh quantity of the chloride-of'lime liquor added, using a strength and quantity which they seem comparatively to require to complete the process. Then they must be taken out from the calcium-water as soon as convenient, for it tends to turn them brownish in color, which is very hard to remove.

During this process, if a too great chemical action seems to be generated, known by an active heat, they (the shreds) must be turned over to conduct it ofi, and a little cold water thrown upon it to lower the temperature, or a draft of cold air blown over it; for if this active heat is not checked, a large amount of chemical and shreds will be destroyed. I now wash the reduced shreds in cold water, and strain and then partially pulp them, and then wash and strain again until the water passes away without much cloudiness. I then soak the pulp in water acidulated with muriatic acid for one or two hours. It improves the fiber, making it soft and elastic, and then strain it and neutralize all remaining acid with an alkali,

when it maybe washed again as much as will be practical, and it is then ready to be pulped for the manufacture of the nicest quality of paper, from the thinnest tissue to a paper nearly as strong as parchment, without a mixture of any foreign material.

A mixture of the fibers of spruce or pine with the fibers of the hard woods makes a softer paper than the use of all one kind of fiber. Otherwise I prefer the soft woods, for they have a much better fiber than other woods.

In treating the softer fibrous plants, I modify the process described in a manner suitable for the material to be treated and the results desired to accomplish.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The process for reducing wood and woody fibers for the manufacture of paper-pulp by the oxidizing action of hypochlorite of lime, in the manner substantially as set forth.

VINCENT E. KEEGAN, M. D.

Witnesses:

ANNA T. KEEGAN, SARAH A. SHURTLEFF. 

